October party ratings: Estonia 200 gaining on SDE, Reform maintains lead
While the opposition Reform Party continues to firmly maintain its position as Estonia's most popular party, support for the non-parliamentary Estonia 200, which fell just short of the 5 percent election threshold in the March 3 general election, is gaining on the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDE), according to the results of the latest survey commissioned by daily Postimees and BNS and conducted by Kantar Emor.
This month, the Reform Party was supported by 32.5 percent of survey respondents, ensuring its leading position but nonetheless falling significantly below the party's record results over the summer, which reached 36 percent in June and 36.8 percent in August.
In second and third place, respectively, are the coalition Centre Party with 17.6 percent and Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE) with 16.6 percent support. Support for the senior coalition party has increased by 1.1 percent on month, while support for one of the two junior parties has fallen by 1.8 percent.
Support for the Social Democratic Party (SDE), the smaller of the two opposition parties, improved 1.4 percent on month to 12.4 percent. The non-parliamentary Estonia 200, however, is gaining ground, with support increasing 1.9 percent on month to 9.4 percent.
Isamaa, the smaller of the two junior coalition parties, is seeing a low in October, dropping 0.8 percent on month to 6.2 percent support.
Of other non-parliamentary parties, support for the Estonian Greens stood at 2.9 percent, while support for Richness of Life stood at 1.7 percent this month.
The combined support for the Centre-EKRE-Isamaa government coalition in October stood at 40.4 percent, down 1.9 percent on month.
Voog: EKRE not at forefront of media coverage
Commenting on the October results, Aivar Voog, survey manager at Kantar Emor, noted that the party ratings hadn't changed much compared with September figures.
"The Reform Party is firmly in the lead," Voog said. "The Centre Party is gradually restoring its ratings among non-ethnic Estonians, and with these small changes at the beginning of fall, the party has risen to second place, passing EKRE. Compared with this summer, EKRE's ratings have rather seen a decline; they are not as at the forefront of media coverage this fall as they were over the summer."
From Oct. 10-16, Kantar Emor interviewed 1,182 voting-age residents of Estonia between the ages of 18-84 online.
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Editor: Aili Vahtla